WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

On April 29, 2016, the United States Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) and its codefendants filed a notice in the federal district court for the District of Colorado that they had conducted new analysis under NEPA for mining plan modifications that increased the amount of coal that would be mined at a Colorado mine. The additional analysis was required by a May 2015 decision of the court, which concluded that the NEPA review for the mining plan modifications should have considered coal combustion impacts. The notice filed with the court in April 2016 indicated that OSMRE had completed an environmental assessment and concluded that mining operations were not expected to have any significant environmental effects. The notice indicated that the mining plan modifications had been approved.

On September 14, 2015, the federal district court for the District of Colorado approved a joint proposed remedy submitted by the parties in a case in which WildEarth Guardians successfully alleged violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in connection with approvals of mining plan modifications. The remedy allowed Trapper Mining Inc. to continue mining activities subject to certain restrictions while the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) conducted a new NEPA analysis. The analysis “will be prospective and will analyze the reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts of currently proposed and future mining activities …, as well as the past, present, and reasonably foreseeable impacts of any other actions or activities as may be appropriate or required by NEPA.” In its May 2015 decision finding that OSMRE had violated NEPA, the court said that the agency was required to consider the impacts of coal combustion.

The owner of a coal mine appealed a decision by the federal district court for the District of Colorado that held that the United States Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement had violated NEPA when it approved mining plan modifications that authorized the mining of additional coal. The owner of a second coal mine affected by the court’s decision had already appealed.

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal by two mining companies of a Colorado district court decision that said the United States Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) had violated NEPA when it approved mining plan modifications for mines owned by the companies. While the appeal was pending, OSM completed new NEPA analyses and reapproved the plans, but the mining companies said that OSM’s reapprovals reset the statute of limitations for third-party challenges and included conditions adversely affecting their lease rights and requiring downstream studies. The Tenth Circuit concluded that the appeal was moot because it addressed only the now-superseded OSM actions and did not fall into the “capable of repetition but evading review” exception to the mootness doctrine.

The Tenth Circuit ordered the appellants—two coal mine owners—to submit briefs addressing the basis for appellate jurisdiction.